Alex and Luke; A 'Julie and the Phantoms' AU

Part 5: The "Fake" Date

1995, 12:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon

It is noon the next day and Alex is walking up the drive to the studio, ready to rehearse some new music with the guys. He gets to the doors and only sees Luke. He checks the clock to make sure he has the right time.

"It's 12, where's Reggie and Bobby?" Alex asks Luke. Luke looks up from tuning his guitar, not hearing Alex show up until he spoke.

"Oh, hey, uhm," Luke puts the guitar down and stands up to face Alex, "I told them to get here at 12:30. I wanted to talk to you about yesterday." He says casually. He walks over to the couch and sits down. "Come here."

Alex swallows hard at this. Body tense and anxious, he walks over to the couch and sits down next to Luke. "What's up?" he responded, trying to act natural.

Luke clears his throat and turns his head to look at the boy. "I really had a lot of fun yesterday. I know we kinda ended the night with a few jokes, but, really. It was nice to uh... hang out... like that." He's shy to use the word 'date' because he doesn't want to come off forward. If only each boy knew how hard the other's heart was beating in this moment.

Alex slowly lets out a breath and tries to untense his shoulders. His head is down, looking at his shoes. "I, uh," he begins, "I had a really fun time, too." He responds quietly. "I hate to admit it because I don't want to give you the satisfaction of being right but, you were." Alex looks up at Luke's face to see a prideful grin. Alex rolls his eyes and bumps Luke's shoulder with his own, muttering, "Shut up."

"I didn't say anything!" Luke exclaimed. Alex turned to look the other way and scratched his head to hide his smile as he said, "Whatever."

A small moment of silence falls over the two. Luke leans back on the couch, puts his feet up on the table in front of them, and rests his hands behind his head to get a bit more comfortable. Alex looks down at his hands and begins to fidget with the rings he's wearing. "Y'know something?" Luke blurts out.

Alex felt the nerves rise again. "What's that?" he spits out, biting the inside of his lip in anticipation. Luke looks in Alex's direction at the back of his head, and begins to open up, "I feel like yesterday really helped me figure some stuff out about myself, y'know? Like, going out with a guy seems like something I really would be comfortable with and, like, want. Someday. With someone- uh- some guy- or, well, yea, I guess any kind of person."

Alex smiles at his friend's realization. He leans back on the couch so that he's right next to Luke again and turns to look at him. "That's good, dude. I'm happy for you," he says sincerely. Luke looks at Alex with a smile before biting his lower lip then resting his head on the couch, looking at the ceiling. He takes his hand out from behind his head and lays his arm across the top of the couch, just behind Alex's shoulders. A breath catches in Alex's throat at Luke's action. He looks forward at his legs as his knee starts to bounce rapidly.

Luke starts talking again, recalling different parts from the previous day's adventure, but Alex isn't paying attention to the words he's saying. Alex can only think of how he was feeling last night once he got home from the date. He wants to say something to Luke about it but he knows he can't do that in case Luke wasn't feeling the same. But how could he know what Luke was feeling if he didn't bring it up? He also wonders if he's actually even feeling what he thinks he might be feeling because, what if it was just a caught-up-in-the-moment kind of feeling? He doesn't want to say anything he may end up regretting because of his own confusion. With his knee still bouncing harshly and the inside of his lower lip still between his teeth, he has an idea that he thinks will help him figure this out without giving away the predicament he finds himself in.

"Do you want to do it again sometime?" Alex blurts out, interrupting whatever it was Luke was saying. He looks away from his trembling knee and over at Luke, waiting patiently for him to say something. Luke returns the look, furrowing his brows slightly. He fixes his seating position so he is now sitting sideways on the couch with his body turned completely towards Alex.